"I can't believe it." Apostolos groaned, head in his hands, as Rory did his best not to burst out laughing.

"Oh, aren't you glad?"

"I AM glad she is fine!" Apostolos mumbled, resting his head against the wall of Rory's house. "But she's tier six! I'm only halfway through tier six! By the time I reach tier seven, she will be hot on my heels!"

"And the problem is…. What, exactly?"

"It's, just, just…" Apostolos fumbled for words before Rory finally decided to save him.

"That every barrier you've put between yourself and her, she's gradually tearing down, forcing you to reckon with reality?"

"I hate how you say it so nonchalantly," Apostolos muttered. "But yeah, basically."

Rory chuckled, grabbing a bottle and pouring two glasses of alcohol, the closest Earth equivalent being wine.

"You like her."

"…."

"You like her,"

"Fine, yeah, I do!" Apostolos finally threw his hands up, snatching the offered glass and downing it in one go. "But E.O.N. above it feels so improper!"

"And why is that?"

"You know why."

"So, why don't you give it time?" Rory finally offered, looking to be helpful at last. "Mentally speaking, it's not like you were some forty-year-old dude hitting on a teenage girl. You were barely out of your twenties, and with how slowed aging becomes from ascensions, you were closer to a late teenager anyway. She's an adult, you're an adult, and you've done an excellent job of maintaining boundaries and keeping your relationship appropriate even when you knew she was crushing on you."

"Should I have dissuaded her more?"

"The fact that years later she still likes you says that it wouldn't have mattered. Anyway, it's not like you fed into it."

Apostolos was silent, grabbing the bottle and pouring himself another glass, then downing it before looking at Rory.

"Fine, but I'm slow walking this as much as I can."

"Fine by me." Rory raised his hands in defeat. In truth, he was just happy that Apostolos, the closest thing he had to a younger brother, had been so determined not to take advantage of the dynamic between the two of them that even now that there was hardly a difference, he was still reluctant to consider her feelings seriously.

"That aside, what now?" Apostolos asked, changing the subject. "Tier seven, how long until you leave?"

"I've got a few errands that still need to be handled. First and foremost, the Tyrant of Earth and Scales has got to go. It's bound to come here once it feels like Ehkorrus is filled with worthwhile prey. As a tier six Territory Alpha, it will tear through the walls without much hassle."

"And then you abandon us?"

"Almost," Rory said without bothering to deny his intentions. "From there, I've got three minor projects. First, I can't go anywhere until I've fashioned a void carriage."

"Void carriage?"

"Name is still a work in progress," Rory added with a roll of his eyes. "From there, new armor."

"But you've got that set you used for the Bane fight." Apostolos pointed out.

"And it's extremely inflexible. I need something with lots of options and usability. If that means a hit to its overall power grade, it's no big deal. Putting that to the side, there is still one last project that I'd like to test my luck with finally making it a reality."

"And that is?"

"Inventory space," Rory said with a smile.

"Like, the warehouse?" Apostolos asked, uncertain.

"No, not quite. In video games on Earth, you'd often have an inventory to store things that were completely detached from your actual physical baggage. I want to recreate that concept, and I think I know how."

"Before you even start lecturing on theory," Apostolos interjected, horror on his face. "Let me run away. It was bad enough how many of these I had to sit through as a kid."

"Smart ass," Rory laughed as Apostolos proceeded to actually stand up, brushing himself off as if preparing to leave.

"Wait, do you really have somewhere to be?" Rory asked, surprised, he'd thought Apostolos had been making it up. After they had visited Violet, Apostolos clearly needed an escape. Thus, Rory had invited him over for a bit.

"…. Yeah," Apostolos answered, eyes shifty.

"Are… are you already meeting with Violet?" Rory questioned, surprised.

"Well, she basically begged to have a spar with me," Apostolos answered. "And I couldn't just say no."

"Oh god, above," Rory laughed, shaking his head. "Fine, go. I'm about to spend a lot of time with my eyes closed, facing a wall anyway, as I go over the details of my errands."

"Have fun with that, you antisocial old man," Apostolos said, leaving Rory with a wave.

Waiting several seconds to give Apostolos some time to backtrack if needed, Rory finally shook his head after a minute had passed.

Hah. Kids.

They weren't actually kids, of course, but the point still stood.

Now, it's time for a final brainstorming session.

During Rory's brainstorming session, there was one thing that he found himself constantly falling back on.

I really don't want to turn this into a whole ordeal.

Patient as Rory was, he didn't feel that spending another three years preparing for his remaining errands would behoove him; in fact, it felt like the exact opposite of what he wanted to do: go anywhere else.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

With that understanding, a particular requirement underlay all of his brainstorming. Everything needed to be something he could source easily, preferably items they already had on hand.

The first and most pressing was fashioning a workable spatial shell for traveling through the Null Window. After spending what seemed like days thinking it through—but only a few hours in real-time, thanks to the effects of his Mind Palace—Rory had a functional idea of how to make it work.

First, the question of how to make it. There was the obvious factor of the Void Diamond, but there was a problem with the Void Diamond itself, mainly its grade. As a master-grade resource, the energies it would potentially 'radiate' would slowly break down lesser materials. So, was he to try to make something truly high quality to withstand such forces, or the inverse and go for the disposable angle?

In the end, the answer was obvious: the disposable angle would be faster and easier. He broke it down into three parts: the chassis, scaffold, and brace. The chassis would be the part directly holding the void diamond, and even for a relatively 'disposable item, whatever made the chassis would still have to be the most durable part of the entire thing. After considering what resources would likely work best, he eventually settled on Banite. Typically, it was nearly impossible to make more of it. Still, given a medium-sized horde of bane-touched monsters had delivered themselves to their doorsteps, it was far less scarce than typical.

With the chassis material decided, next was the scaffold. It would serve as the intermediary between the complete item, transferring excess energies away from the void diamond, and grounding them into the brace. Needing to 'cooperate' with the void and spatial energies, the material used needed to be reasonably stable and some space theming so that it wouldn't conflict with the base energies. While they'd done lots of work over the years in discovering and innovating materials, only two fit that bill: stellarite or solarite. In the end, Rory opted for stellarite, as its 'standard' essence of basic stars was far easier to obtain than the sun energies that would otherwise require him to bother Apostolos for help.

Finally, there was the matter of the brace. Rory considered materials such as stabilized steel, night copper, and Crimson steel before finally settling on a material that wasn't even his own making, which Gil had invented, known as Pyroxene Ceramic. It wasn't the toughest material as far as armor went. However, it was far cheaper to produce than something like night copper while still maintaining high pneuma conductivity and overall toughness, albeit at the expense of its brittleness in comparison.

Putting together a mental sketch, Rory nodded to himself. Aside from the Banite, which he would assist in creating, he would delegate the production of everything else, where possible. Doing so would require less of his personal focus, something Rory found preferable. Selfish reasons aside, it would also benefit the crafters of Ehkorrus to understand the conceptual blueprints he was building, given that he wouldn't always be around to craft everything himself. Hell, in the maybe-not-so-distant future, some of them may wish to travel through the Null Window as well.

Assuming they determined a more mass-producible alternative to the void diamond, that is.

That still left two short-term projects to be handled: his new gear and his attempt to create the world's first spatial 'inventory' that would allow for storage without the need for physical baggage or luggage.

His gear was surprisingly simple to plan. He mentally sorted through the catalog of materials Rory knew they had on hand or were readily available and then assessed how best to use them. The result was a fur-mantled leather and chainmail cuirass that wouldn't look out of place on a medieval battlefield reenactment and an outer layer that struck a semblance of a fusion between a 16th-century captain's coat and a Russian-style fur cloak. The premise was simple: the outer garment would be helpful if he ended up in a cold atmosphere, and being untethered to the cuirass itself would result in something far more easily removable and storable, regardless of whether he succeeded in his inventory project or not.

The other element that went into his planning was the fact that while straight-up metal alloy armor was superior to the leather and chainmail combo of antiquity, it was far more cumbersome to store. Rory recognized that assuming he would succeed in his inventory project was asking for a setback that would then also require rethinking the rest of his planned journey away from Ehkorrus.

Planning the rest of the armor wasn't much more complicated; it was simply a checklist of items like vambraces, boots, and greaves, all with the same composite makeup of leather and chain mail. It would be relatively simple and versatile, with many areas for differing inscriptions and gem slots, and its defensive qualities would be reasonably sturdy. The only 'special' part of the planned gear would be a third defensive layering of hardened scales from a certain local Territory Alpha once he got around to butchering it.

With the gear planned out and the 'blueprints' safely stored within his Mind Palace, Rory was left with only the inventory project to plan. His original thoughts on it being possible were fostered by his first encounter with the Khan of Blue Lightning and how it had 'opened' its territory to them, unfolding space that had been 'hidden' in ways Rory hadn't fully understood.

Rory still didn't fully understand it, but he felt like he had a good enough gist that, now aided by the windfall that was the void diamond, made him believe he could create the first-ever prototype. Marking out a box of still-to-be-determined dimensions, he would attempt to 'fold' the space inward, isolating the box from the rest of their physical space before he then incorporated it within the void diamond, its attunement to the void would, in theory, more easily allow for a 'conceptual space' to be inserted within.

All fancy ideas, all purely theoretical for the time.

Stretching his arms overhead, Rory finally let his conscious thoughts bleed out from his Mind Palace, his opening. He'd spent weeks in his Mind Palace considering his options, which translated to a few days in real-time.

Glancing around, Rory was pleased that nothing had burnt down in the few days he had been preoccupied.

"Alright, time to get busy," Rory muttered as he stretched his arms overhead one last time before standing up. First, he needed to deliver his 'invoice' to their crafters to start preparing the materials required for his projects. Deciding to do it in person, he leisurely strolled through the young city. He saw a few faces, but they quickly averted their gaze; only folks such as Apostolos or the first generation of settlers of Ehkorrus seemed to view Rory as just a normal person. Shrugging it off, Rory soon found himself standing in front of their forge workshop, the glow of the Stellar Heart a warm and welcome sight.

I'll miss this, I won't lie.

Entering, it took only a second or two to spot Gil in his shrunken dwarf form.

Probably one of the odder skills I've heard of so far. Compacting your full size into a smaller body, and in return, allowing you to also 'compact' all physical attributes as well.

"Founder Rory," Gil quickly grew back to full size as he gave Rory a deep nod.

"You don't have to add the title," Rory sighed before shaking his head. "But not the point. I'm just here to deliver a list of things I need worked on."

"A big final project in mind?" Gil questioned.

"Sort of," Rory confirmed. "Assuming it all works out, I'll leave you a small tome with anything useful for anyone who may be suited for it in the future."

"Real kind of you," Gil said.

"Practical of me," Rory corrected. "Also, the banner worked like a charm."

Gil's face split wide with a smile as he clapped his hands together.

"Glad to hear it. It's not easy trying to figure out ways to maximize another person's capabilities, even less for you."

"Well, keep at it. It won't be long until we have more functional teams than just MVM, and then you'll be the guy responsible for gear and all that jazz."

"Maybe not me; credit-wise, getting gear directly from me is one of the more expensive options," Gil amended.

"Ahh yeah, I sometimes forget about those credits." Rory rubbed at his chin, noticing a slight stubble that he'd have to clean up.

Remember to pack a razor when I leave.

"It was a clever idea by Irene," Gil admitted. "But 'yer pretty much the only one exempt from credits. Earning credits based on 'yer contributions to the city are great and all, but as 'yer the literal founder of the city, it felt… redundant."

"Uh huh," Rory nodded along, already growing bored with the conversation of city planning, something he'd happily delegated to others. "My point is, when we've got more people looking to be clearing monsters and all that, it's the forge and the crafters who will supply the gear, and therefore, you guys will have your fill of things."

"Which is why I'm looking forward to the next batch of citizens. I'm hoping we get another forge-hand from the group."

"Hopefully," Rory said in agreement, more for his sake than anything else. "Anyway, here you go," Rory handed Gil a slip of paper, earning a raised eyebrow.

"Call me old-fashioned, but I like to write things down when I can," Rory said with a shrug.

"I won't argue with our founder," Gil said as he passed the slip of paper into a safe inner pocket. "In the meantime, where are you off to?"

"That obvious?" Rory asked.

Gil just nodded.

"Well, nothing that special," Rory answered. "I'm just off to scout out where my new pair of boots is lurking."

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